Net Applications implemented new measurement rules that does not include the traffic which comes from the Chrome pre-rendering technique in the usage share and revised the Web browser numbers. According to the results Chrome has the third place with 18.90% market share following Internet Explorer which is still first with 52.84% and Firefox that keeps the second place with 20.92%.

Google’s Web browser, starting withChrome 13, uses a technique called ‘pre-rendering’ to speed up Web page loading. This pre-loads page or pages while the user is typing in search queries in order to load that page faster when the user clicks on the associated search result link. Chrome pre-renders pages based on either HTTP headers inserted by the site creator or based on an algorithm that predicts the likelihood the user will click on the search result link. Google started using this technique more aggressively in the latest version of the browser,Chrome 17.

This results in faster page loads for users, but Net Applications believes this traffic varies significantly by browser and should not be included in the usage share for the browsers. At this time, Chrome is the only major desktop browser that currently has this feature, which creates un-viewed visits that should not be counted in Chrome’s usage share.